New week of Australian Survivor

Juz 89 Comments

Australian Survivor is the perfect TV for pandemic times (no – don’t you dare switch over to The Block!).

Hayley pulled off a clever move last week and still has an idol in her pocket. The downside is now everyone knows she’s a smart player.

I bet King George of Bankstown is wishing Hayley was on his side now as there is no way she would have mucked up the target’s name, a la Cara. (By the way, Cara’s Instagram handle is Duchess of Double Bay.)



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  4. Laura identified the problem well.

    The issue, with these one-third-season tribe swaps, is it just becomes a boring numbers game.

    And I’m finding it hard to care about a lot of the contestants. Maybe I’m getting cynical, but the players that we have, they’re either unlikeable tools, or they just really suck at playing the game.

    And now it’s just a case of watching the people who don’t annoy you, getting picked off one-by-one until merge mixes things up again.

    • If Kez had jumped on her own she faced a 50/50 of Cara winning the fire challenge. The minority were offering her an exciting chance to be at the bottom of their alliance if they won a fire challenge. They couldn’t shake Emmet loose. They couldn’t shake Flick loose. Survivor is a numbers game and Emmet has been much less of a dick since the early episodes. Emmet and (regrettably) George are going to go deep in this game and they are bad people to have as enemies at this stage. When a minority alliance bases their argument on ‘good people’ it means only that they have no real arguments.

        • Emoath; useful if she could work for Border Security.
          “This guy is carrying Crack”.
          “This lady has 10khs if a strange maggoty food”.
          “This parcel has 20 packets of steroids”.
          Can she do that?

        • Does Cara realise that empathy means being able to give support to someone because you have also experienced the same thing? Otherwise what you are is sympathetic – supportive because you can imagine the pain of the other.

          There is a limit to the situations in which you can be empathetic, because you can’t personally experience everything everybody else has.

        • “Invisible”, well he ‘s gotta be close to 100 kilos of potential alpha. Emmett’s leading him around like a docile stud bull. He’s not much chop in challenges, true. The tribe would do best to eat him……just after he’s voted in a Tribal.

    • I did like how the challenge ultimately came down to Emmett versus Simon, the two hulking physical threats facing off against each other.

      I assume the rest of the tribes took notice.

      • Bummer. I would have preferred Cara or George.
        I fell asleep during tribal so went to Survivor FB for the result. People there didn’t like Georgia and said she was mean to George. Did I miss something? I thought we had hardly seen Georgia.
        There also are those who think that people saved by George in the “save 6”, owe him. I don’t. He chose strategically, not sacrificially or benevolently.

  7. I didn’t realise a new thread had been made. I posted this in the other one but I’ll repost it here too. So Kez kept saying that Cara can’t be trusted when she fucked up & accidentally voted for the wrong person but SHE was going to deliberately vote for someone else. It’s HER that can’t be trusted. And bloody Rachel complaining about being out of that alliance. She & the others totally IGNORED George for the first week. Now they are on the bottom they need to suck it up.
    I have a request for the I’m a celebrity people. George & Danny from Big Brother on next years show. Can you imagine those 2 together? It would be hilarious

  8. Dump your toddlers to go on a tv show, hard to have “empathy” for that type.

    Letters from home episodes make me sick. These folks aren’t at Gallipoli.

    Throwing a challenge. Emmett is 100% bullshit, sack of shite Aussie.

    • I usually drift away during the ‘Here are your letters! Everyone start the shameless overacting!’ episodes.

    • I liked that Emmett admitted that he wouldn’t be able to throw it. The edit tried to make out that he did, but I wasn’t fooled.

    • I started to read that the other day, but got bored partway through and gave up. He’s a bullshit artist, has several marriages behind him, worry beads, blah blah blah. Definitely an ad break article.

      • I couldn’t read it all. Jock’s a dickhead; albeit a dickhead with a tabloidish book out. He’s wanking on the talk show circuit , too.

        Wonder how much he paid Jimmy Barnes to crawl up his arse in the Foreword?

        Appreciate the effort, though, Juz.

  10. George’s strat talk is fascinating. It’s no wonder he is obviously confident he can outsmart Emmett and co. Rachel’s departure was obvious the minute they showed her back story package

  11. Damn I was hoping George would flip & vote out Emmett just to see the smug look wiped off his face. I can’t believe none of them were suspicious he threw the challenge. What an arsehole.

  12. I barely even watched, last night, I got distracted with a project and really only tuned in to see who got knifed.

    Emmett’s been slightly less of an arse, for a week or so, and finding out that he threw the challlenge just to get rid of the brains means he hasn’t changed, it just means the show’s editors were giving him a break.

    Meanwhile, it kinda seems obvious that George and Cara are on a fast-track to nothing, since when the tribes merge they’ll be rendered useless as soon as the brawn team reunites. George at least has the wits to be suspicious of Emmett’s promises. The empath, meanwhile, is sitting there thinking she’s got it made.

    Sorry guys, but I think I’m starting to lose interest in this season. Where are all the likeable people? Aren’t there usually at least one or two of them around?

  13. Georgia posted about her medical emergency. She had an ectopic pregnancy that was not diagnosed when they pulled her from the game (they thought it was diverticulitis). A few days after her Fallopian tube ruptured and the ectopic pregnancy was discovered. Horrific

    • That diagnosis doesn’t fit with the timeline. There is no way you would get over an ectopic and ruptured tube within 24 hours. She is saying it directly, ergo she was not absent for only 24 hours. It must have been Survivor days, not real days.

  14. Is that an idol in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?

    A brawn “legend” departs. Two heads are better than one …..but so are two idols.

    He wanted to make merge but finished with a dirge.

    He did take it well. Emmettt won’t be like that

  15. Another fun tribal. I confess I thought Simon was another jock cast for his muscles when the game began, but he is obviously a huge fan and turned out to be entertaining to watch. No doubt we will see him back for a returnee season. Well played again, Hayley

    • Simon’s not quite the Golden God, but he made exactly the same kinds of mistakes in this season as Dave in his first season–over-confidence and making himself an early target.

  16. I have mixed feelings about the first half of the episode. The reward challenge was interesting and well-desiged … but the reward itself? Overloading on that much processed sugar, when they’ve just spent 24 days living on rice? I bet they all regretted it later. I imagine the end-result would not have been pretty. And watching George, not just dig through the buckets of food, but actually shove his whole hand through the chocolate milk? Horrifyingly nauseating.

    The immunity challenge looked like a kind of torture. I thought they’d be there for days, doing that.

    Then, the episode switched gears and it became an exercise in pure-Survivor plotting.

    It was a mistake on Simon’s behalf to tell his allies about the two idols, and they responded in a really intelligent way (“We have to get rid of him now, because come merge, he’ll be unstoppable”). And of course, Simon trusted Dani and Chelsea, so the plan was sound. I imagine knifing your own allies is never a good plan, gameplay wise, but Dani and Chelsea recognised the urgency of the situation. A hulking physical threat, with two idols, past merge? There is no way you could risk that. Knife him and do it fast.

    The real brilliance, and the part I loved, was how Hayley decided to throw a second plan in under the first plan. Hayley’s plan was even better, because no matter what happened, she won. Either Simon goes (and Dani realising that she doesn’t have as many allies as she thought wouldn’t really matter, because she’s still left on the bottom of the Brawn 2.0 pecking order), or Dani goes and Simon loses one of his core supporters, leaving him far more vulnerable in the future.

    I was almost a little mad that the producers threw in the advantage, bringing in the added wrinkle of Cara and George, because that really could’ve screwed everything up. Like, it was entertaining enough, we didn’t need that complication to crank the tension up any further.

    Sunday’s episode will be interesting when Cara and George get back to Brains 2.0 and explain what happened.

    Poor Simon. He was so pretty. Maybe not the smartest player (revealing his two idols was just a terrible, terrible idea), but you know, I didn’t mind him, or his pink speedos.

  17. I was sure that Simon would catch on with all the giggling and carrying on while Hayley threw the challenge. Hope springs eternal I guess.

    There’s going to be a scene in the next couple of episodes where Dani tries to convince someone she’s trustworthy and gets asked if Simon thought she was trustworthy. There’s almost certainly going to be an almighty tantrum from Dani before they even get back to camp. She did not look happy when the votes against her were read out.

    Lastly, I’m amazed production ran the candy store event at all. I’d guess they’ve all been tested multiple times and vaccinated, but getting them to share food and drink was not a good public health message. At least we know no-one was infected because they would have had to drop the season if the candy store had become a superspreader event.

  18. When then girls on Brawn said they would throw the challenge & Emmett announcing last episode he would be throwing the challenges till the merge I thought well this will be interesting. Both tribes trying to throw it. Then I saw it was balancing balls I thought oh no this will go on forever. They just need to pretend to lose their balance & drop them all. When Brains had all their balls on I wondered if that guy was going to ‘trip’ & let them all drop. I couldn’t remember what George & Cara thought of Simon & wondered if they would vote for him or put a spanner in the works. Seeing Simon go with 2 idols was hilarious. I think a couple of people in the US version have gone home with 2 idols.

  19. I also was wondering if Brains were going to try to throw the challenge. I was hoping so.

    Poor Simon thought he was playing Family Feud and that the girls were on Team Simon. In Survivor, no one is ever on your team.

    • Not if you’re a challenge beast with 2 immunity idols in your pocket, no.

      It was his own fault, at that. He just got cocky and decided to reveal this, thinking that there’s no way it would hurt him. Bad decision there, Simon.

      But you can’t help but wonder how much more successful his game would’ve been if he’d just kept it quiet. His alliance was 3, up against all the ex-Brains (and Flick, who he couldn’t stand), so if they’d lost, last night, it probably would’ve been Chelsea or Dani going home.

    • There were so many moments when that plan could have died. I really liked Simon, but I think social intelligence was obviously a weak point. The whole tribe was acting weird – giggling at the challenge, the plans to follow Flick (really wish she had gone), the general vibe at camp, the vibe at TC, catching Baden explaining the plan to Cara and George. Every one of these things should have hit his radar, yet even when he was suspicious at TC he still didn’t play an idol. Really.

      I really wanted Baden to spill the beans when they both sat out of the challenge. That would have been fun. I have liked Baden, but so far he is looking a little beige in game play.

      I so wish Dani had gone. Dani really turned me off this week. There’s a strong element of sexism in her attitude, and the dismissive tone of “alpha” showed that she is willing to use anyone for her purpose. Maybe her job has made her jaded against men in general, which wouldn’t be surprising. It feels like nobody there is a real person to her, they may as well be robots.

      How silly was the statement that a blindside of Simon would be the greatest ever seen on Survivor? Not by a long shot. In fact, it was quite a standard, logical move that the viewers would expect of any smart player. Didn’t she watch the Aus season when Mat was double and triple-crossing at every tribal, aided by David?

      Loving Hayley, she is one smart cookie. It does seem though that she is not afraid to lay the cards out for everyone to see. She knew that if Simon went, Dani would know all about the second plan and who arranged it. I think she has thought all that through and has plans up her sleeve to counter the target on her back now.

      Of course there was an advantage at the reward – that’s why they go one at a time. Yet nobody noticed that the tube had been emptied. Or maybe they did but the edit didn’t show it.

      After the first week, when everyone turned on Emmett for being cocky in the challenge, I haven’t seen anything about him that I find negative. We are seriously getting low on real power on the show, and we are going to be left with the dweebs after merge. Let’s get some more idols/advantages in so that the strong people aren’t just picked off after merge.

      • I didn’t like Emmett referring to his targets dismissively as “these chicks”.That he thinks he’s better than women is abundantly clear. I could point to other examples of his toxicity, but he’s not worth the keystrokes.

  20. There was nothing smart or strategic in the way Simon exposed his orbs. You have to let others think you are going to use them. But even that usually backfires on your alliance.
    It was fun seeing Danni’s shock last night. She underestimated Hayley.

    BTW, I don’t like Hayley. Can’t explain it. Smart player, naturally devious. Which is what you need to be in Survivor. I don’t like her smug face.

  21. I don’t like Hayley either.
    And this game play will come back to bite her. She’s just shown everyone that, no matter what, she can’t be trusted. Ever.
    The really smart players know that they have to show some loyalty, somewhere.
    Let me reminisce (why does the spelling of that look wrong. I’m going to trust Spellcheck), for a moment.
    My favourite season of Survivor ever was the very first one (US) where the blond lass and the hulky, handsome guy had a secret alliance and ripped through until the end. Now that’s how it’s done. I don’t think anyone has ever repeated that complete annihilation of all comers.

    • Blond “lass” ( are you Scottish laddie?” 🤣) was Amber. The guy was Boston Rob. I can stand BR. Amber took the prize, but they shared anyway because they married and had kids.

  22. Announcing that one has two idols is like saying ” I’ve got Covid guys, and am gonna make some big moves”

    Can’t stand Dani, enjoyed her reaction. She’ll take a billy club and break heads of those who turned on her. Waiting foir the empath to unload the shock and awe. She’s good at taliking with a mouth full of food. Dead empath walking.

    • If Carla was an empath worth her salt, she wouldn’t have needed anyone to whisper that Simon had two red balls in his pocket. She would have been able to “feel” them.

  23. Channel 10 has a South African season on their streaming site. Okay, I may need to do something about my Survivor addiction, but it’s a great season. They have castaways who are actually likeable.

    • I’m watching it, too, but am only two eps in. I listened to a great podcast with the showrunner explaining how they filmed it in a COVIDSafe way, and how the climate dictated the extra clothes the contestants were allowed (including raincoats). I do enjoy a season where not every contestant runs marathons/ is a bodybuilder etc

    • Oh that’s interesting. I was wondering about that. Well it’s annoying. I was looking forward to her playing it & being told it was invalid. It’s interesting that Simin didn’t give either of his idols to anyone when he left. They seem to have changed a few things. It used to be once you left the beach in a medical emergency for treatment you were pulled from the game. If it’s not something that can be treated there & then you leave the game.

  25. Judging by today, Emmet could actually do an immunity run.

    I’m confused by Hayley. She has two rivals for the win. Emmet if he loses an immunity and George. She had a chance to blow up the Brawn alliance and destroy George. All she had to do was say that George had told her to play her idol on Laura because the Brawns were targeting Laura and that the Brains would all be voting for George. That way she could keep her idol and wave goodbye to George. Emmet will almost certainly lose an immunity challenge at some stage and then she would be cruising to the final.

  26. I think that Hayley was probably thinking having a mole was an offer she couldn’t refuse.

    Hayley will be in trouble soon. And hopefully George will get outed too.

    BTW, George was nice eyes, but his whiney nasal voice, the hair and the was he wrinkles his nose when he whines make it hard to notice.

  27. As obnoxious as he is, I loved George’s plot last night, because it did work, and it worked perfectly. Plus, like last time, Hayley took out an insurance policy (and asked for Laura to send a sneaky vote Dani’s way) just in case Kez played her idol.

    Of course, the one wrinkle that not even George could’ve foreseen … slipping the idol to Flick on her way out the door. Still, if the rules allow it, fine, and it’ll certainly make things interesting.

    I can understand Hayley not throwing George under the bus. There’s no reason the Brawn tribe would believe her (because they know she’s desperate, and the information could’ve gone to her in a different way), and there’s no guarantee that they’d immediately change their votes to George out of fury. It would’ve been entirely possible that they’d stick to the plan of eliminating Laura, and which means that — even if George is thrown out of the Brawn alliance — the numbers would still be 5 Brains versus 7 Brawn.

    All that she would accomplish is burning a bridge and accomplishing nothing for it.

    So I can understand why she went along with George’s plan.

    I’m nervous at the preview, tonight, where Hayley is clearly shown telling Dani, “You have a mole”. Again, burning that sneaky alliance with George is not going to gain her much of a reprieve. At best, George might go home a night before she does?

    If I was Hayley, I’d be mentioning to Dani that there was a mole, and telling her that it was Flick (someone who Dani and Chelsea spent a long time trying to get rid of, anyway). She looks desperate so Dani would probably believe her, and it would take any suspicion away from George.

    • Just caught up with the week, and your analysis is spot on, WS. That tribal worked like a charm, but it always had potential to collapse afterwards.

      I don’t agree with the idol switching, at all. That means that someone like Simon, could stand up after the votes are read, and blatantly gift his two idols in front of everyone. The idol should be nullified as soon as the host gives the option for it to be played which is declined.

      I wondered, too, if Hayley could convince them the snitch was someone else.

  28. Emmett seems to be able to do anything….except wash his putrid pants. A real bush pig.

    I struggled to tell the difference between Dani and the barrell she waddled off

  30. “Bayden”. Big mistake. She probably felt she needed to go along with Emmett. She should have listened to her gut.
    (I’ll let you have that one, Dave 🤣).
    Actually Dani hasn’t bothered me. I haven’t seen what you see, Dave. She’s a bit of a grunter but she has been a straight shooter (although she missed her mark tonight). She seems like ‘what you see is what you get’ and I like that. I would prefer her to airy-fairy Wai, or treacherous Hayley.
    Kez and Hayley are two strong, young blonde things. It’s hard to see much difference in the pair of them.

    • She shot straight with Simon, but a bulet to the head may not be the kind fo straight shooting you’re thinking of.

    • Dani is okay, for me, in that she is playing a straight game, but I don’t warm to her as a person.

      So glad Kez went, hopefully the first of the hangers on to go, followed by Flick, Gerald, Wai. Then we might be left with some good players. However, I have watched enough seasons to know that people like Wai and Gerald are pulled along as numbers, and then as non-winners.

        • I guess it’s a technique Dani’s learned working in the prison system. There’s a fair bit of it in The Godfather series, come to think of it. Julius Caesar copped it.

          If it was Dani v Emmett both with knives, I’d go for Dani.

  31. God last nights show was so infuriating. I was yelling at the TV shut up Hayley. I got my hopes up when 3 people could win immunity. But the WORST 3 won it. Then only THEY could vote someone out so it sucked even more. Then they were to do a fire challenge & only one could vote. Then fucking Dani won it. I don’t know what the fuck Andrew was doing. He didn’t even get a bloody spark. And then I thought when the vote was read out I bet he won’t be going. There will be another twist. Then when they showed him walking out I thought ah ha he’ll be going to exile island or something. Don’t know what this rock is & wonder if more will be joining him. So sucked in Dani. He’s still there. Looks like shits going to go down between Hayley & George tonight.

  32. I didn’t see them walk to the fire set-up, so I was thinking, if they were allocated a fire station, Andrew was given a weak flint, Emmet was given damp straw and Dani’s straw had been soaked in something flammable.

    Trust no one… especially the producers. Look what they did for Brandon.

    • I am pretty convinced that Andrew threw the firemaking. There is no way he wouldn’t have shaved the flint, even with the advice, unless he didn’t want to win. A survival expert would not go into the bush unprepared, especially in something as basic and as essential as that.

      There are a couple of reasons, but I suspect he just didn’t want to be the bad guy having to make the decision. He’s quite effectively sitting on the fence atm.

      It was also very clear, that with such an unfair vote, whoever went would be given the second chance.

  33. The council of one twist was a shocker, especially when the initial challenge that determined the three immunities was so brawn heavy. At least its victim got a chance at return.

    Life’s getting grim when you persuade yourself to keep watching because Emmet and George are obnoxious but Emmet is a challenge beast and George’s plotting is entertaining.

  34. So is Hayley going to have any allies left? Her old brain alliance are pissed off she outed George. The brawns don’t trust her. She really needs to win immunity or she’s a goner. She is on the outer with everyone. I couldn’t believe how much Baden struggled with that challenge. He looked so uncomfortable whereas Hayley didn’t seem to be in any discomfort at all. She looked very comfortable. As for bloody Emmett. I was soooo willing for a gust of wind to blow them all down. WILL HE STOP WINNING FUCKING IMMUNITY? It’s getting boring.

  35. As soon as I saw that challenge between Hayley and Baden, I knew…we all knew, that Hayley would win. Wirey girls have always beaten heavy men in the monkey challenge.
    It’s why gibbons climb trees and not hippos and elephants. 😁. Well, maybe that’s not a very good zoological reason.

  36. George teaches us Masterclasses in a politician’s life
    a) always deflect blame
    b) always deny
    c) accusing another player lying is “buckling under pressure”. George knows that calling another a liar , he or she will be asked to withdraw. Wonder if the jury get to see that bit?

    • Oh yeah. I keep thinking, “George must be quitting politics because he’s blabbing like….🤔…. Hayley.

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